Well of Oath
by Servant of Fire
Summary: Castiel cried as Sam's head bowed. Dean cleared his throat, looking down into the well where his little brother was chained up. "Hey, hey, Sammy! We told you we would save you, buddy. Look up." Dean shook himself, trying to ignore Castiel. "Raphael! You will pay for this!" Cas dug his fists into the snow, lighting it on fire with his grace. Dean didn't even try to figure that out.
1. Chapter 1

**Well of an Oath_ **

**Dean fell into the snow, tripping over the angels that were burned in it. Not far to go now. Not far to go. **

"**Castiel!" Dean screamed. **

"**I found him, Dean. Down there." By which he meant Sam. **

Dean wrenched the metal door with his bare hands. The cry going up here, of demons scared out of their minds, made him shiver in his skin. He wanted to hide from this. From sacrifice. And yet_

"I owe him." He tasted the snow on his tongue, felt his heart leap to his skin. It soared through him converted into a sparrow, beating him with the brushstrokes of blushing fervency. He owed his little brother everything. His life. The freedom of his soul.

"Raphael...How could he?!" Cas screamed it to the hollows of the winter night. Nowhere and no one responded. This was Purgatory a place where dignity never comes.

At last they made their way to it. A well house. A small one. With metal doors that Dean had wrenched away bare-handed.

Blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke...Of demon smoke, rolled out of the pit, haunting them with a prayer that continued mantric but was never heard. The sound of chains rattling.

Dean held his breath, begging. He didn't expect to see the flash of puppy dog-like hazel wreathed in black grime and rust water stains. Rusty brick brown hair fell around the forlorn face.

It took Dean a moment and Castiel's crying to realize that he was looking at Sam.

Sam looked up at them, chained in the Well of the Oath by his wrists. He shook his head, unable to believe this was truth, and bowed over.


	2. Chapter 2

**Rescue: **

**For Sapphire: The beautiful child whose homicide I reported this week. Because you deserved to be rescued, and I wish I could have saved you. **

Castiel cried as Sam's head bowed. Dean cleared his throat, looking down into the well where his little brother was chained up. "Hey, hey, Sammy! We told you we would save you, buddy. Look up." Dean shook himself, trying to ignore Castiel.

"Raphael! You will pay for this!" Cas dug his fists into the snow, lighting it on fire with his grace. Dean didn't even try to figure that out.

Dean felt a cry bubble to his throat. A cry of love for the kid brother who had saved him from so much.

"Sam?" Dean wondered if the poor kid even remembered him. Beautiful Sam whose whole life had been grave trouble reduced now to stupor.

Dean got on his belly, and crawled closer to well's mouth, despising the smell of the curse down in it. Hell yawned beneath it. Dean knew that the Cage was also down there and that's where the chain led to. That Sam had to endure Lucifer and Michael's torments still, along with Raphael's. That he'd known all this when he'd made this deal to save Dean and Cas and he'd done it anyway. If that wasn't love, then Dean didn't know what.

Dean got down to where he was close enough he could, at last, touch him.

"Sammy…"He reached down a shaking palm, cupping the boy's cold and wet chin, like holding a blossom after a spring shower. Sam flinched and gnashed his teeth, frightened by touch. Dean's other hand came up.

"Dean!" Cas was terrified that they'd both fall in and down to Lucifer. He grabbed Dean's shoulder in the same place he'd saved him from Perdition before.

Sam wrenched alert at the sound of his brother's name. His eyes dawned looking at Dean's eyes that were as green as the first spring in Eden.

"Dee?"

"Heya, Sammy…"Dean licked the tears off of his lips, wanting to scrub them away but loathe to take his hands off Sam's frigid face. Sam blinked, stunned.

"How-how did you?"

"I'll explain later, okay. We gotta get outta here. Before he comes back."

"Or before you both fall in!" Cas wailed in desperation.

"Yeah-no, no! Don't fall in!" Sam wrenched in his chains. Dean reached down further and grabbed him under his arms.

Cas let out a gasp. Then, he tied his trench coat's tails to Dean's waist. If he couldn't haul him back up with him, he'd just fall in too, so they three brothers would be together in Eternity torment or none. Dean closed his eyes picking up on this without asking. Sam's eyes were wide with fear, wondering what they were even doing here. The whole point was to save them, wasn't it?

Hands shaking, Cas reached up and gingerly melted Sam's chains. It was a breath and a moment of sheer, gut-dropping terror as Sam was hauled up and out and into the snow.

Sam fell on Dean's chest. He looked down at him mesmerized by his eyes for a moment. Then he was being bear-hugged by both Dean and Cas. Both were crying. Sam was too stunned yet to be emotional. He just pressed his face into Dean's chest and twisted his hands in Cas' coattails.

"Oh, Oh crap! Cas! We gotta get a move on. He's...He'll know we sprung him out any second." Dean sat up with a chirp. Sam studied Dean's face and then turned to Cas in terror. To Sam's amazement, Cas seized his face and firmly kissed his cheek.

"Oh goodness...I'm so glad you're mostly okay at the moment…"Cas shook his head. Dean put his hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, you're right. Sam...I'm going to heal your legs so you can run, but I won't be able to heal the rest of these wounds right away. If you're in pain, take my hand and my grace will pass through my palm and down your arm." Cas frowned. Sam wasn't paying any attention. He flinched and looked back as Hell demanded he come back to its never-ending broil.

"You're gonna have to do it on the fly, buddy. We're losing contact with him." Dean snapped his fingers under Sam's nose but he didn't make any gesture of response.

Cas laid a hand on Sam's forehead. The boy groaned as his legs lit up with grace, but it only lasted a minute.

"Okay, get him up. I'll scout ahead." Cas leaped to his feet, a tangle of wings and flames. Dean was still getting used to being able to see his grace in this place.

"D-Dean…?"

Dean stood Sam up and hugged him.

"Shh...I'm here now, kiddo...It's okay."

Believing that was all Heracles trials. Dean closed his eyes and pressed his face to Sam's shoulder, trying to actualize the solid shape in his grip.


	3. Chapter 3

**Running **

"You_you have...Are those?" Sam was transfixed by Cas' wings as he ran alongside him. Dean was transfixed by Sam. Only Cas paid mind to those who gave chase. Demons feared Hellhounds as they should. Hellhounds walked in Purgatory and Cas could hear them. But something worse belonged to Raphael. Something older that should not have been let out of the Pit.

"Yes, they are. This is real, Sam." Cas looked back. Dean heard the chatter from the things in pursuit.

"What are those?" Dean's voice said he knew all too well what Hellhounds spoke like. Big brother had once sacrificed himself for the younger one. He was more than a little bit familiar with these creatures. The things following them were not it.

"The Shadeem." Cas frowned. Sam let out a chirp.

"N-No. No. He said he wouldn't let them out. He said that the taste of my blood was enough." Sam went green.

"He fed you to them?" Cas's jaw dropped and he almost ran into a tree.

Dean went white and blue and nearly passed out. It had been on his mind too much lately. What Sam had done. If he hadn't, the Apocalypse would have started up all over again. It would have been over. Cas and Dean would have been thrown into the center of that last waking Hell. Dean had a thousand thanks on his lips, but twice as many regrets. He didn't need to know about that just yet.

"I...Well, yeah, Cas that's what keeps the well alive." Sam looked back. His eyes were tired and sad. The fact that he wasn't afraid of Hell's most fearsome beast told both of his brothers everything they needed to know about what had been happening to him down here.

"We have to find a way to ditch Raphael." Dean grabbed Sam's wrist. It was his way of saying _we're talking about this later. _

"Yes, I agree. I've an idea. Dean, I know you don't like flying, but this isn't the same as airplanes." Cas wrapped his arm around each of the Winchester's waists. He took off at a breakneck pace, eyes suddenly bursting with grace light. Talking like an eagle, he took to the sky. Even Dean was relieved to be airborne.


	4. Chapter 4

**Saved by the snowfall**

If it wasn't for the avalanche the Shadeem brought on themselves, they'd all have been devoured. Now they were hiding in a shallow pit, with a fire built into the wall to warm some bandages. Cas was treating the wounds in Sam's torso with holy oil, something only angels knew how to do. Dean was pacing, waiting for the opportunity to ask.

"I'll go ahead to scout...You...You won't be able to move for a while." Cas' smile was sympathy hiding a million other words. He held Sam's hands to his cheeks for a moment, eyes weeping without tears. Those who can understand will not need an explanation, but for the others, there are no languages with enough vocabulary.

The hill grew quiet in Cas' wake. Naught but the whisper of fire reminded this unworldly place of sound's capacity in it.

Dean stood watching snow fall on Purgatory for a long moment. Sam sat watching him, shivering as he pulled back on his ruined shirt. This basin was growing colder by the moment.

Finally, Sam could wait no more. His legs were fine. He hauled himself up with a weary breath. Dean kept watching the sky, just as an eagle dove out of the fire flashes that rose out of Hell away to the West.

"I'm sure you have questions." Sam came to stand next to Dean, watching the hollow aching place.

"I don't have the words for them." Dean's voice cracked in his throat.

"I know…"Sam bowed his head. The snow clung to his hair in little diamond and fabric clusters, as if the bride of heaven had thrown her veil over his praying brow.

Dean turned to look at him. Really look at him. At the pain that made him glass. Fragile_clear_ hardened_resolved…

"You saved me."

It wasn't a question.

Sam lifted his head. The eagle that dove out of Hell's simmering hands screamed. For all that ruin, he was free. Sam was much the same now.

Slowly, in the wake of that cry, something dawned in Sam's eyes. The tiniest smile highlighted a pair of scars at the ends of his lips. It looked like he'd been muzzled. Dean traced them with his thumb petrified and intrigued by the inevitable truth.

"You...You saved _me._" Dean's eyes threatened tears.

"You would have done the same." Sam nodded.

Dean thought about it. Would he? Hell had been a mystery when he'd gone there. Sam had only narrowly escaped it when he'd offered to go back to save them. Where he'd been…

Dean took Sam in his arms again. It wouldn't be the last time, he prayed with all his might. The wind cast up snow around them that hit their legs like the sands of wrath in deserts. The temperature crashed. Dean's teeth clicked. His hand slid up underneath the hem of Sam's shirt, feeling of bandages and scars. Sam clenched his teeth at the cold but suffered him. He laid his face on his shoulder as his hand wandered up his shoulders, feeling the story as if Sam's torment was Braille.

"Sam!"

"It won't make sense. Shh, it's never gonna...Just...Just don't do that to yourself. You were there the day I made that deal. You know what happened. And now...Now escaping Raphael is what we have to do. God help me if something happens to you_ because you know I...I did my best to keep that from_" Sam's voice cracked and he closed his eyes.

Dean just stared at this the last wonder in the world. About that time, Cas came back, face yesterday's newspaper gray. The brothers knew what this meant. It was time to move.


	5. Chapter 5

**The tunnel**

"What is it?" Dean was afraid to even talk. He barely let go of Sam. The boy was shivering and so he kept his arms around his waist even as he took a step back. Dean had a feeling he'd be clinging to him in the girliest fashion for months now. It was hard to look past the horror and give him room to breathe.

"I don't...Dean, I don't know what to do. They are gaining on us and they_They have wings. Six more than I do." Cas shook his head. His face bled its ashes and became chalk.

"Give me back to them." Sam's voice broke even as he spoke. Dean turned to look him in the eyes, feeling like his heart just burst through his ears.

"What are you nuts? No way in Hell!" Dean shook Sam. How dare he?

Oh, that's right, he hadn't asked permission when he'd thrown his own soul back down the rabbit hole to save him the last time, either. God help Dean Winchester_he couldn't take this. Sacrificing himself was easy, but his Sammy...

"Sam! No! They_They are ruthless...Even Lucifer was terrified of them. God sealed them away so long ago...What are you thinking?" Cas turned to Sam outraged and then, his jaw went slack. Sam was so incredibly, eerily calm.

"I know…"He smiled a shaky smile. He wasn't afraid, but his eyes showed fathomless pain and sorrow. The icy calm made Cas hold up a hand.

"Please no, Sam. There is another way. There will be. You...Don't...Don't ask us to let you sacrifice yourself again. We simply cannot bear that." Cas looked like he would vomit. Dean took Sam's shoulders.

"We're leaving here together or we're not leaving. Capisce?!" Dean gave Sam a shake. One that clicked the kid's teeth together. His eyes trailed to his feet like he was ashamed. Then, Dean realized the boy didn't realize this was just the fiery compassion of brothers who had come to save him. He legitimately thought he was being scolded for some wrongdoing. Oddly, at 26-years-old, he looked like a 5-year-old tot through the eyes just now.

"Listen...We...can never thank you. Not enough. Not enough to express...What it means. What you did. What you're still doing, if they catch you and we can't…"Dean gulped. Sam looked up, amazed by the tonal shift. He looked like he might cry. Dean nodded.

"But we...We are not going to leave you, either. We just won't. No matter what kind of scarier than the friggin Devil thing is gunning for you. Now, if you know anything, anything that can help us come up with plan B now's the time to spill." Dean's hands shook as Sam's eyes filled with tears. It was indiscernible where they came from. The boy nodded. Dean reached up and thumbed them off as Cas pressed closer.

"Sam, please don't cry. Tell us the way out, if you know." Cas wrapped his wings around Sam as his knees threatened to give out.

"I_I'm sorry...It's...I haven't…"Sam started to panic a bit, looking around, lost, so so lost. Dean felt like he was melting for a moment when realization dawned through the veil of tears.

"Narrow is the way….That leads to life. That's what...Michael was always saying. An escape tunnel. One that Crowley had made should the Shadeem ever invade Hell. I think...If we could find it_" Sam looked sadly over his shoulder as one of those cursed things howled.

"Great, okay, that's...That's something. Got a stabbing guess where to start?" Dean tilted his head. Sam shivered and looked fervently at Dean.

"It's in the Leviathan neck of the woods. The good news is even they are afraid of the Shadeem so they'll try to get scarce if they think they're coming…"Sam swallowed. Dean nodded.

"And the bad news? They're pretty nasty things too, eh?" Dean smiled. Sam looked at Cas, too tired to explain it himself. Cas swallowed.

"God locked them up too. I guess...Some of his first creatures were...um… a little whacky." Cas looked back as a shriek rattled the stones and trees.

"Right, okay, whacky is better than being whacked by whatever's coming from that way. Let's get." Dean took Sam's hand like he was a little boy. Sam was chewing the fingernails off his other hand.

"Stop that. It's gonna be okay." Dean swatted Sam's hand wondering just how traumatized his little brother actually was now. There would be time, he told himself. Time to put him back together, piece by piece. Just not right now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Broken heart syndrome**

It was audible as he drifted away. Dean's eyes watered, but he was succumbing to sleep. His knees were molten steel beneath him. Smooth giving way like butter, hot from the pain of running so long. Cas noticed it just as he passed out, landing on Sam's shoulders.

"_You want them broken, right? They will be. If I go back, go to the Well of Oath_become the lock and key of Hell. Well, they won't live well with that, now will they? But see, it makes the playing field fair. The other archangels can't be drafted to use as weapons against your power surge. And you can't magic force my brother to become Michael's meat puppet in your war with Castiel…" Sam was frantically chattering as he fought in an angel's grip. _

"_SAM!" Dean kicked his way free of six angels but was met with the sword of a seventh. Raphael stared at Sam, mortified, yes, even he. _

"_You would do that for them? Go back...Knowing what they've got a mind to do to you?" Raphael shook his head. Sam growled. _

"_Look, are we gonna do this or not? Come on, you know that I'm right. If Lucifer gets out...He will stomp you like a midnight cigarette. You want to be the king, you have to move other pieces off the board. Make this a fair fight, Raphael! Castiel and his army are your brothers_you owe them that!" Sam tossed his hair out of his eyes. Dean noticed Castiel sob into his palm a few feet away. He also noticed in a stream of consciousness that Sam's knees were knocking. He was scared out of his mind by what he was doing. _

_Raphael smiled. _

"_This...Why this...Is poetry. Alright, Sam, I will give you your pathetic request. I won't need the armies of Hell at my command anyway with Castiel so withered by the loss of you." Raphael nodded to the angels. _

"_Take him there and bind him to the covenant expediently." Raphael turned to Dean. Dean was having a heart-attack now. A full-blown widowmaker. He reached out his hand and groaned for Sam, but it came out in a choking sound. _

_Sam looked at Dean one last time. His face was ghost white. Then, he was being grabbed up, despite Castiel's pleading and protesting and fighting against the guards. _

"_Take care of him, Cas! Don't let him do anything stupid!" Sam shrieked as he was dragged back to Hell. _

Dean woke back up screaming, clinging to his chest. Cas was holding him around the shoulders.

"Shh, you're alright. That's done with. We made it down here, didn't we?" Cas was healing Dean. Dean could feel grace in his veins.

"What's...What's wrong with him?" Sam sobbed leaning against a tree in horror.

"He...Well, uhh...He has frequent nightmares of...of the deal you made. He...The first time he had a heart attack. A fatal one that I healed only just in time. He still has them. It's like...Like his spirit can't take what happened to you." Cas pressed Dean to his chest from behind. Dean curled in on himself and wept like a little child.

There was a long pause of smothering horror. Cas had pressed his palm over Dean's mouth to suppress his sobbing and possibly keep the Shadeem from hearing him.

"Guys, I'm so_"Sam flinched when Dean pushed Cas off and snapped_

"If you apologize, so help me…"Dean looked up, wiping his tears off with his sleeve. He saw the fearful expression on Sam's face and beckoned him.

"Come here, Sammy. For God's sakes." Dean held his hands open like a child asking for their mother. Sam went into Dean and Cas' arms. They all fell back against a tree. Dean had been asleep for 3 hours. He was still almost too exhausted to go on. They were hiding deep in the forest on the edge of Leviathan country trying to wait the Shadeem and Raphael's spies out.

"We have to go. They probably heard you when you woke up." Cas wrapped his wings around both of the brothers and looked up at the starless skies of Purgatory at night. Dean bowed his face to Sam's hair and braided it in his fingers.

"He's right. If you...If you're too beat to move, man, we're gonna have to carry you." Sam's voice was broken from all the smoke he'd inhaled in the well. Dean only just now noticed it and it jarred him awake.

"No, no, that's not right. I can handle it." Dean clenched his teeth.

"What happened to us, guys?" He laughed. The others looked down for a moment before Cas gasped.

"We went to war." He stood up and eased them to their feet. In total silence, they spirited away through shadows as a Shadeem howled in its language.


	7. Chapter 7

**Where even God was loath to tread_**

To step off into the unknown valley where the serpents of No Man's Country lingered. A place that even God was loath to tread. Harrowing and hallowing. Narrowly, and all at once. The three brothers felt their collective heart stop and then stutter_a candle to the wind.

"God!" Cas covered his mouth.

"Pretty sure he left this place." Dean closed his eyes. It was Sam that he didn't want to see. Because there was no fear in this place quite like the fear of Sam and what he might do. What he might sacrifice. The stroke of his love too profound, to capricious to contain. If blood was needed, he would let it. He would make the tongues of these serpents all the way drunk with it if it meant that Dean emerged on the other side.

Sam shrank to Dean's side. Even for all his sacrifice, instinctively seeking refuge in the warmth of his brother. Even though Castiel, a primordial warrior, was there. Sam had not felt safe in ages. Not until Dean entered the stage of this unforgiven place. Suddenly, for all its manic depression, this place was homelike. Dean opened his eyes. He didn't meet Sam's eyes, but the brush of his arm beside him as he shrank nearer. Dean felt it bubbling up, the last fountain of relief. He could almost hang his hat here.

"Okay, so you're the one with the one-up, champ. Which way we heading?" Dean sucked his teeth. A cry that sounded like a cockatoo echoed through the trees. Only now did he see that the trees were all like sponges, made soft and papery by the poison of the Leviathans.

"I-I don't know." Sam gritted his teeth. The memory of pain danced like a swinging lantern in his eyes as they roamed over the landscape, thinking.

"And you wouldn't know, chief. No one comes in this place that means anything good, and no one goes out unless Raphael makes it so." A voice. A Southern genteel voice, so out of place here…

Dean pulled a knife. Sam flinched, hands forming fists, body braced for a beating. Cas' eyes blazed white sapphire.

Into the valley where God was loath to tread, walked a man. A navy man by the look of him, smart cap, somber features. He laughed at their expressions.

"I mean you no harm if you mean no harm to me. Rather, I have an offer to make of you, if you'd give me a moment of your time." The man tipped his hat.

"We don't take up offers from monsters!" Dean snapped. The man looked at Sam.

"Forgive me, I assumed maybe you were accustomed to us monsters. This one's got so much of Lucifer's grace burned into him, rolling out of him. Son, he must have roasted you alive a thousand times again. But that's not even the worst of it. Say, it's not even the half of it. And that_That is an injustice I cannot abide." The man drew closer, face to face with Sam. Sam swallowed.

"Wait... You! You... I know you...I saw your face...In...In the well. The well it speaks to all those who drink out of it." Sam sputtered when Dean cut him a worried look.

"Benny, at your service, Master Sam. We all know you too, you know. Your blood flows out of the well and feeds us vamps profusely. Or it did until these gents came down to set you free of Raphael's wicked control. Not a moment too soon. The stuff was a hypnotism that removed from me all moral agency. I rather like myself soberer than not." Benny smiled at Dean. Dean came at him, attacked. Benny took his wrists.

"Say, you're the brother_the one this whole business was for. I like you. Raw fire. Think we'd even make the fast of friends, chief." Benny winked.

Castiel looked over his shoulder. A howl and a giggle rose from the Shadeem. A giggle that was contagious and bled together in a cacophony of like dramatized giggles.

"Alright, friend or foe, we'll have to keep going with him. Let him go, Dean. If he can run in time with us, then perhaps he's worth our company. If you betray us, then THEY can have you. And you don't want that." Cas glared at Benny. Benny's face turned the same color as a mint leaf.

"Why else you think I approached you with such boldness? Better a beheading or an angel's smiting or anything really than...than them." With that, they fell in pace.


	8. Chapter 8

**Finding, Falling, Neverland**

This wasn't how he'd expected it to go. This wasn't how he expected it to turn. He had hoped that the way to Leviathan country would be paved with blood and fire and vapor of smoke. He could have handled that.

What Dean could not handle was this pit. This white rabbit that Benny chased, for the hunger of its blood. The way Cas drew back, exhaled exhausted, eyes burning grace like the midnight oil. Then, they were falling down. Down into Neverland, or a place like it. A place where the Leviathan stored their food for later use. A place the Shadeem played their mind games.

Last and least, Dean was not ready for the way Sam looked so unafraid in the face of torment worse. How he hit his knees in a snowfall of fairy's down feathers. He inhaled, complete exhaustion, willing himself to exist.

Benny took the rabbit in his teeth. The blood dripped down from his throat, swarming in his nostrils. He spat it out and plucked the clock away from it.

"This is your fault!" Dean hissed at Benny. Benny smiled.

"Either I drink the fountain chance provides me, or I drink you, chief. You gotta decide which one sits with you better." Benny chuckled as he hung the clock about his throat.

"Or, I could cut you down here and now." Dean's hand went to his machete.

"He's the only one who knows the way." Cas gasped.

Dean turned to face his angel. Cas was afraid. Wings prickled like the hair on the back of a superstitious cat. Dean felt his spirit evaporate.

"Hey...I'm not the one you should be fearful of right now looks like…"Benny's attention was drawn not to Dean or to his threats but to Sam. Dean looked at Sam and felt his bones snapping and cracking with electric fright. Sam's face. His eyes. They shone like fallen sunlight. Lucifer's grace bubbling to the surface of his skin.

"You're not getting out of here without some damage. You shouldn't have come here." Sam gasped. He gathered the fairy's feathers in his hands. They caught fire and sent streams of lava rolling from his fingers.

Fairies, specters, Leviathan and Shadeem alike giggled in the dark. They were headed this way, moving as the ocean breathes.

"They're not coming for you. They're here for me. You're gonna let them take me back. And you're gonna get out of here. Make the end of me mean something, alright?"

Before Sam could be protested, he leaned his head back, blood running from his lips. Blood rolled like the ocean and met his feet. Benny hit his knees, covered his eyes, begged and pleaded_the pull of that blood much too strong.

Dean had been thrown into a tree. He lay there wide-eyed watching as Sam called the lightning to himself.

"Gods of the Shadeem! End this! Come out and face the freak that you created!"


End file.
